Chapter 5 - The Man Who Hired Her.
No one spoke in the elevator.
Nolan stood nearest the doors.
Marcus stood behind him.
Mara watched both men in the mirrored wall.
Adrian watched Nolan directly.
When the doors opened on forty-seven, Nolan did not step out.
Adrian pressed the close button.
The elevator continued downward.
Mara finally broke the silence.
“So this is where somebody explains why your dead father just warned us about Nolan.”
Nolan looked at Adrian.
“I was hoping we could do that somewhere without cameras.”
“Too late,” Marcus said.
Nolan glanced at him.
“You think there are no cameras in this elevator?”
Marcus gave him a cold smile.
“I think if you make one bad move, the camera will be the least interesting part of your morning.”
Mara sighed.
“Men are exhausting.”
Adrian's mouth almost moved.
Nolan noticed.
“Glad somebody still has a sense of humor.”
“Talk,” Adrian said.
Nolan's expression changed.
The humor vanished.
“I knew Gabriel Vale.”
Marcus laughed once.
“You worked for him for six months.”
“No.”
Nolan looked at Adrian.
“I worked for him for eleven years.”
The elevator seemed to slow.
Adrian's eyes narrowed.
“You were twenty-two when he died.”
“Yes.”
“You started working for him at eleven?”
Nolan shook his head.
“My father did.”
Mara folded her arms.
“And what does that have to do with me?”
“Everything.”
The elevator stopped at the private office level.
Adrian led them into the conference room and locked the door.
Nolan put both hands flat on the table.
“My father was Elias Hart.”
Marcus stared at him.
“The attorney from the trust letters?”
“Yes.”
Mara looked between them.
“Your last name is Price.”
“My mother's name.”
“Why hide it?”
“Because Elias Hart disappeared in 2009, and everyone who had worked closely with him started getting audited, fired, transferred, or bought out.”
Adrian sat across from him.
“You think my father did that?”
“No.”
Nolan met his eyes.
“I think he was trying to stop it.”
Marcus leaned against the table.
“Stop what?”
Nolan opened the leather folder he had carried all night.
Inside was a sealed envelope.
He placed it in front of Adrian.
The front bore Gabriel Vale's handwriting.
TO NOLAN - ONLY IF MARA RETURNS.
Mara stared at it.
“Returns from where?”
Nolan did not answer immediately.
Adrian noticed.
“Say it.”
Nolan looked at Mara.
“You were in this building as a child.”
Mara's expression went blank.
“No.”
“You were here three times that we know of.”
“I would remember that.”
“Maybe.”
She took one step toward him.
“What does that mean?”
Nolan opened his phone and pulled up an old scanned photograph.
A little girl stood in Gabriel Vale's office holding a red balloon.
Her hair was tied with a white ribbon.
A woman crouched beside her.
Celeste Ellis.
Mara stared at the child.
There was no question who she was.
A small scar was visible beneath her right thumb.
Mara sat down.
“I don't remember this.”
Nolan nodded.
“Neither does Adrian.”
Adrian's gaze sharpened.
“You're saying the same thing happened to both of us.”
“I don't know what happened.”
“You know more than you've said.”
“Yes.”
Marcus pushed away from the table.
“That is the first useful thing you've admitted.”
Nolan ignored him.
“My father left instructions.”
“For you?” Mara asked.
“For whoever survived long enough to follow them.”
Mara's eyes turned cold.
“That is not comforting.”
“It wasn't meant to be.”
Adrian picked up Gabriel's envelope.
The seal was intact.
“You never opened this?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because the instruction was specific.”
Nolan looked at Mara.
“It could only be opened after Mara entered Level Zero using her own authorization.”
“She didn't,” Marcus said.
“Someone used her authorization.”
“Exactly.”
Adrian opened the envelope.
Inside was one sheet of paper and a small brass token stamped with the number 17.
The letter contained five lines.
ADRIAN,
IF MARA IS BACK, THE TRUST HAS BEGUN TO WAKE.
DO NOT LET THE BOARD VOTE BEFORE YOU FIND CELESTE.
THE PERSON COPYING MARA IS NOT TRYING TO FRAME HER.
THEY ARE TRYING TO PROVE SHE EXISTS.
Mara read the last sentence again.
“Prove I exist to whom?”
Marcus checked the board agenda on his laptop.
His face changed.
“Maybe to them.”
He turned the screen.
A new item had appeared on the ten o'clock agenda.
VALIDATION OF DORMANT BENEFICIARY.
Mara stared at the words.
“What happens if they validate me?”
Marcus searched the trust documents.
“I don't know yet.”
Adrian did.
He had spent half the night reading his father's old bylaws.
“If the dormant beneficiary is validated, the Founders' Trust activates.”
“And then?”
Adrian looked at her.
“Then whoever controls the trust controls the company.”
Mara's voice became very quiet.
“And you think that's me.”
Before Adrian could answer, the conference room speakers clicked on.
A woman's voice filled the room.
“Good morning, Adrian.”
Everyone looked up.
The voice was older, calm, and amused.
Adrian knew it.
He had not heard it since he was nineteen.
“Who is that?” Mara asked.
Adrian's face went pale in a way Marcus had never seen before.
“My aunt.”
The woman continued.
“You have forty-three minutes before the board meets.”
Adrian walked to the wall console.
The controls were locked.
The voice gave a soft laugh.
“Do try not to waste them.”
Mara looked at Adrian.
“I thought your aunt was dead.”
Adrian kept his eyes on the speaker.
May you like
“So did I.”
THE SYNDICATE'S QUIET HOUR
